Guest Bios

Maisha Z. Johnson is an Oakland-based queer Black poet and activist of Trinidadian descent. She works and writes at the intersections of the arts, healing, and social change. She has an MFA in Poetry from Pacific University and a BA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Maisha writes for Everyday Feminism, Black Girl Dangerous, and her own project, Inkblot Arts. Her other projects include Who's in the Room?, an initiative to build support for marginalized writers in literary communities. Her poetry has been published in numerous journals, nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize, and won competitions including Literary Death Match, The Lit Slam, and Portuguese Artist Colony. Maisha is author of a full-length poetry collection, No Parachutes to Carry Me Home (from Punk Hostage Press), as well as three poetry chapbooks, and Through Your Own Words: 51 Writing Prompts for Healing and Self-Care. She's been a featured reader at events throughout the Bay Area and will be touring with Sister Spit next spring. When she's not causing trouble in the literary community, you can find her riled up on Twitter @mzjwords, and visit her at www.inkblotarts.org.

Lonely Christopher is a poet and filmmaker. He is the author of the poetry collection Death & Disaster Series (Monk Books, 2014) and the short story collectionThe Mechanics of Homosexual Intercourse, which was a 2011 selection of Dennis Cooper’s Little House on the Bowery imprint of Akashic Books. His first novel,THERE, is forthcoming in 2017. His plays have been produced in New York City and China. His film credits include the feature MOM (which he wrote and directed), the shorts We Are Not Here and Petit Lait (which were adapted from his stories), and Crazy House (for which he wrote the screenplay).

Inspired by the mesmerizing sounds of Lianne La Havas and the soulfulness in the music of Allen Stone, Azuah is underway of making her debut in the music world as an alternative folk and blues artist with just the right touch of soul. Her emotionally provocative songwriting in juxtaposition with her haunting melodies captivates her audiences from the first note until the last strum.